KOSPI Recovers 5,600 Level Boosted by U.S. Anthropic Optimism

[Anchor]

The KOSPI has recovered the 5,600 level in a single day. Major domestic semiconductor stocks rallied across the board following news that U.S. AI firm Anthropic has filed for what is expected to be the largest initial public offering in history.

Reporter Min Gyeongho has the details.

[Reporter]

The KOSPI broke through the 5,600 mark right from the opening.

It subsequently expanded its gains to briefly reclaim the 5,700 level, and a sidecar for program purchase orders was triggered during the morning session.

Although some selling pressure from retail investors emerged in the afternoon, the index closed up 3.09% at 5,638.

Foreigners and institutions led the rally by net purchasing 590 billion won and 280 billion won, respectively, while individuals net sold approximately 950 billion won.

Semiconductor heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix spearheaded the stock price surge, jumping 4.23% and 5.18%, respectively.

Analysts attribute the turnaround to overnight news that U.S. AI developer Anthropic has filed for an IPO to list on Nasdaq.

Anthropic's IPO prospectus highlights explosive growth.

In the second quarter of this year, even excluding certain expenses, the operating profit margin reached 19%, significantly outperforming the estimated 5%.

During this period, revenue surged more than 1,300% year-on-year to approximately 15.3 trillion won in Korean currency, while the cost of leasing equipment such as data centers increased by only 300%.

The rate at which revenue growth outpaced capital expenditures has sparked relief that profits could multiply several times over.

Anthropic is projected to be valued at around 2.6 quadrillion won in Korean currency through this IPO, and is expected to raise about 130 trillion won, or roughly 5% of its value, in investment capital.

[Interview / Kim Dong-won, Head of Research Division at KB Securities : There were significant concerns regarding how this massive investment would be financed and capital secured. With a successful IPO now anticipated, those worries about AI capital financing have been greatly alleviated for the market.]

Expectations that the capital raised in this manner will ultimately translate into earnings for our semiconductor companies have brought smiles back to the domestic stock market.

(Video reporting: Kim Se-kyung, Video editing: Lee Sang-min)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.